Checking in with the Girls at Full Monty...

Yesterday was a grumpy day for me.  Some emails turned a lovely day into a really annoying one.  I mastered the delete button and tried to keep it at bay, but the 'issue' was literally something that would have been solved in less than 5 minutes by anyone in the building (that's how long it took me to do it after I drove across the city). Anyhow, now I am getting myself worked up again. It's a lump in the oatmeal... I'll survive!

Anyhow, after that I attended a fabulous meeting of the Fringe Artist's Relations Committee.  I am excited for this year's festival and the team has some great energy and ideas that I think will be great for both artists and audiences!  Best new thing - a Fringe iphone App! Look it up - Edm Fringe.  A lot of the information is forthcoming as schedules are not finalized, but you can already tell how awesome this is going to be in application! Play in a Day is also returning - yay! I really liked the energy in the room as we talked of awards, and closing ceremonies and artist accessibility for feedback.  Also in the works are workshops and forums and all sorts of good things!

The day was rounded out by a date with the lovely ladies, Anne Marie Szucs and Sally Hunt, to see The Full Monty. It was great to hang out and visit with AM and Sally.  AM was at the Tony Award Ceremonies in NY so we got to hear about that (how incredibly exciting!) and the shows that she saw. Sally and I haven't seen each other since Spelling Bee closed so it was great to see her and talk about potential future projects.  I still miss the Bees! The three of us had fun - chair dancing during the scene changes and figuring out when to cover our eyes so we didn't see any of the 'bits'. Show highlights? I absolutely loved my friend Francie Goodwin-Davies as the chain smoking Jeanette.  I swear, with Francie in that role, you could base a whole show on that character.  She was hysterical and literally stole the show for me.  I was also blown away by Orville Charles Cameron as Horse.  Not only did he have amazing vocals, but an incredible stage presence.  His number, Big Black Man, was outstanding.  The third highlight for me was David Johnston as the awkward Malcolm singing You Walk With Me at his mother's funeral.  I have worked with David before and know that he has no trouble going big, but it was this beautiful, tender and quiet song that really impressed me.  It is not easy to take it down and have it pay-off as an actor in a musical, but he did, and it is simply lovely.

Grey Clouds Mixed With Blue...

In the rational part of my brain/life I know that I have many, many blue clouds floating up above me. I have a crap-load to be grateful for and rationally I appreciate those things. I really, really do. When I suss it all out, and parse it and see it all - I am in a fabulous place. But, like most people I think, I go through these phases of grey clouds. I'm in one right now. No matter how much I speak up to my irrational brain with the rational part of my brain I see negative stuff. I feel cranky. Now, there is something specific happening that does currently contribute to this - it isn't coming out of nowhere - but it is getting harder to maintain the blue cloud exterior. People say things to me and I automatically reinterpret them in my head as a negative when they could probably have been completely neutral, or maybe they were negative things and I am right and that's why I am grumpy. I don't know. I know I am sad for some things ending and feel like I am being pushed out when my job isn't officially done. I know I still feel like I deserve an apology for how I was treated, and I know that I feel further insulted by being asked to step up into a different job. I'd do a different job - but not that one, but a conversation yesterday with someone made me feel like the job I would like is not mine to have because someone else has spoken for it. So the options are to take the job I don't want or leave completely. See - grey clouds...